August 3, 2016

The National Review: Trump Is Right to Sign Pledge Protecting Children from Pornography

Donald Trump recently signed the Children’s Internet Safety Presidential Pledge, promising to “uphold the rule of law by aggressively enforcing existing federal laws to prevent the sexual exploitation of children online.” Hillary Clinton refused to sign — citing a policy against signing any pledges — but said she agrees with its goals.

The pledge was created by Enough is Enough, a nonprofit which aims to make the Internet safer for children, primarily by combatting illegal pornography and sexual predation.

To this end, the pledge advocates aggressive enforcement of existing obscenity, child-pornography, sexual-predation, and sex-trafficking laws in order to prevent children from stumbling across hardcore pornography online or, more importantly, from becoming victims of stalking or trafficking.

The pledge states that signatories will enforce the Children’s Internet Protection Act and advance public policy to reduce the threat of Internet-enabled exploitation.

Trump’s support for this pledge seems somewhat hypocritical, given that he once posed on the cover of Playboy magazine. And there is speculation among many that Trump signed the pledge in response to the New York Post’s recently featuring two covers with nude photos of his wife, Melania.

All that said, given the available research on the harms of Internet pornography, especially on children, the Republican nominee deserves to be praised for his support of the pledge — if it is sincere. Concern about the link between Internet pornography and child exploitation — along with other societal harms — is well-founded...